sick twisted bastards
I had this —
Sick twisted bastard of a yoga instructor tonight. I swear this guy used to reign over the Fifth Circle of Hell but he was too rough on people so they cast him out and he ended up at my yoga studio. He didn’t just make us do terrible hard things, he made jokes while he was doing it and laughed because he knew how hard the things he was making us do were.
After I limped home and was licking my wounds thinking how damn hard that session was, and thinking, Yeah, but you’ll go back to that guy’s class, damn him, because no matter how hard it was, it was good —
It occurred to me that is quite possibly how my students think about me. I’m not easy. My classes are hard. Some of them extremely hard. I know it. And I make jokes. They are not mean or derogatory jokes, they are basically saying, Yeah, I feel your pain, but you still have to get that knee over that left ear so let’s go. But they are still jokes.
There is a shirt, “I Survived Max Adams’ Structural Writing.” That shirt totally started out as a joke. Except —
People who finish Structural Writing buy that shirt. It’s not a joke any more. That shirt has turned into some sort of medal of honor.
My students come back. But after tonight, I wonder if it is maybe for a different reason than I used to think. Damn. I’m the sick twisted bastard instructor.
How did THAT happen?
Excuse me now, I have to go soak in a tub of hot water.
*If you do not recognize the image above, it is from Legend, Tim Curry plays a great sick twisted bastard.
*Structural Writing is only open to people who have taken previous AFW classes so don’t get all het up and try to jump in there first — I won’t let you — go look at other classes. Like High Concept Writing and The Art of the Pitch. Those are both coming up in a week and are good precursors.